Drilling down: construction cost balloons for HCC’s fire and rescue training center

fr hcctrainingThe construction cost for a new fire and rescue training center at Haywood Community College has clocked in more than $1 million higher than expected, prompting soul searching among college leaders and county commissioners over whether to go ahead with the project as planned.

Chopping his way to victory: HCC student takes national timbersports title

out frBen Kniceley’s pretty sure his dad had a good laugh after the Haywood Community College graduate came away with a national title in the June 20 STIHL Timbersports Collegiate Series.

“I grew up splitting wood and stuff like that with my dad, and he’d always have to force me to go out there,” said Kniceley, who’s from Shelby.

HCC enrollment dips as economy improves

Marlowe Mager isn’t an economist by trade, but a little-known data set at his fingertips puts him on par with the nation’s best forecasters.

Accounting fumble, superfluous zero blemishes HCC audit

Haywood Community College had to pay back $126,000 in state funding after accidentally inflating its enrollment numbers.

The state doles out community college funding based on enrollment. HCC inadvertently reported more students than it actually had, however, and as a result got more money than it was supposed to for last year.

HCC rolls out rebranded products

fr hccTrying to create a small logo that encompasses everything Haywood Community College stands for is no easy task. 

But with only three letters and a symbolic leaf, Aaron Mabry, marketing and communication director, thinks he and Lee White Media pulled it off. The old logo said Haywood Community College and featured a gradient leaf, but the new logo was shortened to HCC, features four new colors and a solid-color leaf.

The world through her fingertips

art frMaine is a long way from China.

And for Amy Putansu, that distance is a testament to her life, passions and career.

“That was a whole new level,” she smiled. “I was in heaven — it was incredible.”

Timbersports team chops its way toward season opener

out frOrange chaps clipped around their legs, Rankin Fender and Zac O’Connor square off inside the sawdust-and-bark-filled woodshed at Haywood Community College. Late afternoon sunlight angles through the lean-to’s open walls, and the two students each grab hold of one handle of a razor-sharp crosscut saw. They slide the blunt end back and forth along the bolted-down log between them, marking out a groove.  

“Timer ready? Sawyers ready?” asks Ethan Bolick, a seasoned member of the HCC timbersports team. “Three, two, one, go!” 

New HCC complex to offer a gamut of response training

A $4 million public safety facility will be constructed at Haywood Community College over the next two years, providing police, fire and rescue workers of all stripes a state-of-the-art training center for simulations, drills and classes.

The HCC Board of Trustees formally voted on Sept. 6 to proceed with the project after nearly two years of planning.

Beyond the wrench: Changing credentials for manufacturing fix-it men lead to new workforce training initative at HCC

fr industryIt’s an industrial mechanic’s worst nightmare.

A machine on the assembly line goes down, and production screeches to a halt. Workers stand idle despite being on the clock. Orders are backing up. All eyes are on the mechanic. Is it a worn bearing, a loose belt, a slipped coupling, a blown fuse? The trouble-shooting within the bowels of the hulking metal parts is endless. 

HCC student takes top spot in national lumberjack competition

out lumberjackHaywood Community College student Logan Hawks recently placed third in the nation in the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series Collegiate Lumberjack Competition.

He is the third HCC student since 2007 to rank as a top place finisher in the national woodsmen competition. 

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